Sunday, November 16, 2008

A Not So Quiet Week

Southern California is burning! Burning, I tell you! I pray that everyone out there along the fire lines is safe and that no one gets hurt. This morning, the patio and garden had ash all over and you could see it in the air. You could smell it, too.

I went to my first All Things String knit night in Anaheim and it was interesting. But before we went there, Jamie, Abraham and I stopped over at DJ's Bibingkahan, a Filipino restaurant in Cerritos and had some artery-clogging but wonderful food. The weekly meeting had been changed from Wednesday to Tuesday and at first I thought it was something I could do after my Physiology class but on second thought, it's too far for me to drive after a long day at school. But it was really nice to see new people and some people whom I had met during June's Worldwide Knit in Public Day (WWKIPD) at El Dorado Park.

On Thursday I helped Nancy out with online stuff and picked up a few batts to spin. I brought home a couple of Crosspatch Creations batts and a couple of Three Bags Full batts as well. Unfortunately one of them was totally felted and so I went ahead and spun Dragon's Fire (Three Bag Full) as a single. I still don't know what to do with it though so I'm keeping it on the side till the perfect fiber comes along for me to ply it with.


I also begun oven dyeing the rest of my cotswold locks both from Homestead Wool and Gift Farm and the Sheep Shed Studio this past week (I LOVE oven-dyeing by the way, more than using my crockpot or electric roaster for dying). Homestead's locks are just perfect! Sheep Shed...meh! I could do without it, but it was inexpensive and I had purchased it along with some 10 lbs of mill-ends. And since I have a pound of it (they came pretty matted together with lots of VM), I might as well start dyeing it and then carding it up.

Homestead's locks came out like this:


Last night, I finally got started on my vintage Weave-It Loom and came up with these two woven squares from my own handspun yarn:


Which became this still-unfinished bloom that's missing its center stamens (still looking for that perfect yarn to complete the french knots that will represent that center of the bloom). I plan to make a few of these cool flowers for Christmas!


I absolutely love it! I'm so glad to have scored this vintage tool and happier still to have waited till I had enough handspun singles lying about. The possibilities are just endless!

Now for the main event of this post...

I would rather have a drop spindle and a drum carder than a fantastic wheel and commercial roving.
- Lexi Boeger, Intertwined

That's one quote that has stayed with me since I read Intertwined two months ago. I've always wondered that IF I had invested my money in a drum carder and some cool fiber instead, and only had a drop spindle, then how could I spin such cool novelty yarns?

So I set about trying to do just that, starting with corespinning and tail spinning locks. The experience is an eye-opener, that's for sure. For one, I can fit so much more yarn on my 3.1 oz plying Ghstworks spindle than I could on either my Julia or Fricke (the plying flyer and bulky bobbin is on the wishlist as I write this!).

Second, aside from me carrying all this strange fiber around with me, I can do this anywhere!!! Which is totally cool! It takes a lot of patience and some very dexterous fingers, but it can be done, and I can't wait to take it off the drop spindle soon!

I've been spinning the art yarn on my drop spindle off and on throughout the past two days and this is what I've got so far. My goal is to fill up the drop spindle so that will take a few more days.


That yellow lock sticking out amidst all the other colors reminds me of Andy Warhol's "10 Marilyns". Hmmm...I wonder what I should name the yarn once it's finished?

Whatcha think?

2 comments:

Bee said...

Love the art yarns spun on your spindle! I never really got a hang of spindle spinning til I learnt on the wheel. Weird. Isn't the sky and the air horrible right now? On a lighter note, I just picked up a 2inch hand loom from the Felt Club even today. I'm hoping to use up scraps of yarn from left over projects.

Liz said...

I can't wait to see your creations from the hand loom? is it like the weave-it? With all the scrap yarn I had lying about I had to do something, and I just love my loom!

What is the Felt Club?